Archive Review: Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3’s Static Transmission (2003)

Steve Wynn is one of those greatly underrated artists that critics love, a songwriter and performer of unusual depth and atypical perspective. As founder of ‘80s cult band Dream Syndicate, Wynn spearheaded LA’s “Paisley Underground” movement with feedback-soaked, guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll that was easily a decade ahead of its time. Wynn’s lengthy solo career has had its ups and downs since his first album in 1990, tho’ it’s been mostly up as of late. Static Transmission, credited to Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3, represents another solid effort of what could be called, for lack of a better term, “psychedelic folk music.”
 
The tunes on Static Transmission feature Wynn’s imaginative songwriting and wan vocals, blending folk sensibilities with ‘60s rock influences and ‘80s punk attitude. “Candy Machine” is a fuzz-drenched story-song with beautifully chiming guitars and muddy sound complimented by a melodic hook; the song belongs on modern rock radio, where it would force many bland rock wannabes back to their day jobs. A percussive guitar riff transforms into a slinky, psychedelic wall of sound on “Amphetamine,” a rocking road song with explosive six-string work and unrelenting energy. 

The hyperbolic instrumentation that introduces “One Less Shining Star” leads into a shimmering dirge of sound and obscured vocals while “Hollywood” cuts like Bob Dylan, or maybe Dan Bern, providing a gutsy look at California’s famed city of dreams. Truth be told, there’s not a bad song to be heard on Static Transmission, Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 delivering one of the year’s best, if sadly obscure, rock albums. (DBK Works, released June 24th, 2003)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2003

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3’s Static Transmission

Archive Review: Furry Lewis's Good Morning Judge (2004)

Walter “Furry” Lewis was a fixture on the Memphis blues scene for years beyond count, recording his first songs in the ‘20s, retiring from music in the ‘30s and being rediscovered in the ‘50s. While most of the original country bluesmen had fled the Delta for Chicago, Detroit and other points north, Lewis remained on Beale Street, traveled the Southeast in medicine shows and, along the way, forged a musical legacy that stands up with the greatest artists of the genre. The timing of the release of Good Morning Judge couldn’t come at a better time as it is one of the strongest collections of Lewis recordings that is currently available.

Recorded by producer George Mitchell in Memphis circa 1962, Good Morning Judge offers Lewis in fine form. The opening title cut is hilarious, Lewis stating that “I got arrested once,” and then going on to deny accusations of murder, fraud, forgery, and even loitering, his light-hearted lyrics covering the deadly seriousness of institutional racism, his vocals accompanied by slinky bottleneck guitar. 

In fact, much of Good Morning Judge showcases Lewis’ unique and intriguing six-string style, the elder bluesman filling songs like “Blues Around My Bed” and “Roll And Tumble Blues” with spry energy and soulful performances. “Don’t You Wish Your Mama Had Named You Furry Lewis” and “Furry Lewis Rag” revisit these traditional blues tunes with more braggadocio than any hip-hop microphone fiend could muster. A wonderful introduction to the lively wit, musical talent and immense charisma of Furry Lewis, Good Morning Judge should be on the shelf of any serious fan of the blues. (Fat Possum Records, released February 3, 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2004

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Furry Lewis’ Good Morning Judge

CD Review: Steve Cropper's Fire It Up (2021)

If he did absolutely nothing else to close out a lengthy career that has now spanned some seven decades, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Steve Cropper’s musical legacy would be carved in stone for his tenure with Booker T & the M.G.’s and contributions to monster 1960s-era instrumental rock ‘n’ roll hits like “Green Onions,” “Hip Hug-Her,” “Groovin’,” and “Soul Limbo.” As the Stax Records house band, Booker T & the M.G.’s also backed legendary R&B artists like Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, and Eddie Floyd. Cropper’s guitar talents have featured prominently on albums by artists as diverse as Roy Orbison, Wilson Pickett, John Lennon, Leon Russell, and Rod Stewart and his songs have been recorded by folks like Redding, the Rascals, Cher, Glen Campbell, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Ryder, among many others.

As a producer, Cropper has helmed albums by Redding (most notably the posthumous classic The Dock of the Bay), Buddy Miles, Poco, Tower of Power, Ramsey Lewis, and John Prine. Cropper’s languid Southern drawl and on-screen charisma stood out even when playing against larger-than-life figures like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers movies, and the guitarist would tour the globe with one version or another of the Blues Brothers Band for decades. In spite of his enduring influence on rock star guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Keith Richards, Cropper never enjoyed the sort of solo career that he deserved as a talented musician, songwriter, and producer. He’s recorded sporadically, enjoying a string of critically-acclaimed and influential albums dating from 1969’s With A Little Help From My Friends and 1981’s Playin’ My Thang to 2011’s Dedicated (A Salute To the 5 Royales).

Steve Cropper’s Fire It Up

The aforementioned name-dropping aside, Cropper has never been an artist content to sit on his laurels, nor to ride on the coattails of other talents. For Fire It Up, Cropper’s first solo effort in a decade, the guitarist enlisted a tight-as-a-fist band comprised of singer Roger C. Reale, drummer Nioshi Jackson, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Tiven, who handles bass, keyboards, and horns. None of these guys are exactly household names, although Tiven was an acclaimed music journalist before becoming a full-time musician, songwriter, and producer. All are talented cats, though, and they provide the perfect instrumental foundation for Cropper’s stunning six-string skills. Case in point: the album-opening “Bush Hog, Part 1,” a short but funky strut of an instrumental that displays some of Cropper’s finest chicken-pickin’ riding high atop a strong rhythmic backdrop.

The album’s title track is a gritty, Southern-fried rocker that perfectly frames Reale’s growling, gruff vocals against a soundtrack that mixes rock ‘n’ roll bravado with a Stax soul heartbeat; Cropper’s fretwork stands out from the grooves, as does Tiven’s nuanced but essential harp-play. The blue-eyed soul gem “One Good Turn” was co-written by the Rascals’ Felix Cavaliere, who provides subtle keyboard washes to the song, Reale’s emotional vocals accompanied by some timely blasts of saxophone. The mid-tempo “Out of Love” treads unabashedly onto Curtis Salgado’s soul-blues turf, Cropper lightning up the performance with his imaginative and varied fretwork while “She’s So Fine,” co-written by Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers with Cropper and Tiven, is the sort of ramshackle R&B rave-up suitable for the Blues Brothers.     

“Two Wrongs” is a sort of rock-infused, late 1960s/early ‘70s R&B construct that helps showcase the depth of Reale’s vocal talents, his performance here reminiscent of the great Otis Redding while “Heartbreak Street” is the sort of narrative soul that Stax Records superstars Sam & Dave cut their teeth on. The song’s deep emotional undercurrent is pumped-up and magnified by Reale’s turbo-charged, emotional vocals. “The Go-Getter Is Gone” is a tasty soul-drenched rocker, a brassy song that demands a larger-than-life performance from everybody involved, and it works in creating a real liver-quivering foot-stomper of a song. “Bush Hog, Part 2” leads into the lengthier, album-closing “Bush Hog,” a shimmering and buzzing instrumental throwback to the mesmerizing music of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, bringing Cropper full circle, as it were.   

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Steve Cropper’s guitar skills are unassailable, informed as they are by 60+ years of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll. Tiven, too, is a talented musician whose contributions to these songs (and the album’s production) are paramount in achieving the sort of rock ‘n’ soul fusion I imagine the two men had in mind. Cropper’s Fire It Up is a helluva lot of fun, an entertaining album guaranteed to bring back memories of a simpler, more joyful era of rock ‘n’ soul music. Grade: B+  (Provogue Records, released April 23rd, 2021)

Buy the album from Amazon: Steve Cropper’s Fire It Up

Short Rounds: Peter Case, The Fortunate Few, David Olney & Anana Kaye, Sour Ops, Joe Strummer & The Thieves

New album releases in 200 words or less…

Peter Case – The Midnight Broadcast (Bandaloop Records)
Singer/songwriter Peter Case is a walking contradiction – he’s a rocker, a folkie, a bluesman, and a power-pop pioneer! Over the course of an acclaimed career spanning five decades, Case has created an unassailable body of work largely by defying expectations and following his restless muse. The stunning The Midnight Broadcast stands apart from the crowd, however…a concept album, of sorts, the performances here recreate the sort of late-night, static-ridden, AM radio broadcast one used to hear on clear-channel stations like Nashville’s WLAC while driving cross-country. As such, Case pursues a rich American musical menu that places songs like the lovely folk-pop ballad “Just Hanging On,” which wears its pastoral piano and strings like a comforting cape, alongside obscure covers like Dylan’s country-blues gem “Early Roman Kings” or Sleepy John Estes’ “Oh the Morning/President Kennedy,” delivered as a reverent Gospel-tinged blues dirge. The Band’s “This Wheel’s On Fire” is reinvented as a sort of Delta blues ballad while the great Memphis Minnie’s “Bumble Bee” is an electrifying showcase of Case’s six-string skills. In this digital day and age, The Midnight Broadcast sounds like a station from another planet, but there’s a lot to like here for the folk, blues, or Peter Case fan. Grade: A   BUY! 

The Fortunate Few – The Fortunate Few: The Rock Opera (9 Dog Records)
The “rock opera” was the foundation on which 1970s-era prog-rock was built. Although the concept album has long since fallen out of favor with the instant-gratification generation, it still comes out of hiding now and then to deliver a magical musical experience. Such is the case with the Fortunate Few’s The Rock Opera. The creation of Nashville rock scene veteran Price Jones, who wrote and produced the album and enlisted a talented band (including the stellar talents of guitarist Stan Lassiter), The Rock Opera is a Phillip K. Dick-worthy cyberpunk tale of a future where children are a consumer commodity, designed in a lab on spec. Following the protagonist, Jonnie, from conception to her teenage years, the song-cycle provides an analogy not only for reckless adoption but also for angst and alienation. Musically, The Rock Opera is more rock than prog, with Lassiter’s imaginative fretwork a welcome addition to the narrative. Notably, Jones doesn’t sing these songs (although she’s a great vocalist), relying primarily on the talented Ryan Greenawalt and Talisha Holmes for the main male and female characters, respectively. Holmes, in particular, is an incredible find, but the entire band breathes life and energy into Jones’ heady conceptual masterpiece. Grade: A   BUY DIRECT!    

David Olney & Anana Kaye – Whispers and Sighs (Schoolkids Records)
Legendary Nashville singer/songwriter David Olney left this mortal veil a little more than a year ago, leaving behind a musical legacy of better than two-dozen recordings that displayed his enormous skills as a wordsmith and underrated compositional talents. The posthumous Whispers and Sighs is Olney’s swansong, and a hell of a goodbye at that. Recorded in collaboration with young singer/songwriter Anana Kaye and her musician husband Irakli Gabriel, accompanied by Olney’s usual group of talented friends, Whispers and Sighs is a wonderful showcase for Olney’s erudite lyricism and eclectic instrumental sensitivities. Olney’s sonorous voice is balanced nicely by Kaye’s dulcet tones, and the band delivers on Olney’s artistic vision, from the baroque “My Favorite Goodbye” and the fierce folk-rock of “Lie To Me, Angel” to the charming “Why Can’t We Get This Right?” and the rocking “Last Days of Rome.” With the mesmerizing “The Great Manzini (Disappearing Act),” Olney passes the torch onto the next generation much as he took the mantle on from Townes Van Zandt. The song revels in nostalgia, a poetic ode to love and loss and memories, written and sung by a master. Whispers and Sighs cements Olney’s legacy as a songwriter and artist without peer. Grade: A+   BUY!

Sour Ops – X (Feralette Media)
Gonzo sonic sculptors spray-painting your eardrums with joyous noise, Sour Ops roar out of Nashville with X, their sophomore effort. Imagine Cheap Trick on a diet of gamma radiation and razorblade flapjacks, or the love child of Iggy Pop and Paul Westerberg, and you’ll have Sour Ops’ musical blueprint. Clocking in at roughly 30-minutes of scalpel-sharp, pulse-quickening git-rock, songs like the clattering “There She Goes,” which pairs a rough-grit sandpaper groove with stinging, chiming fretwork, or the power-pop gem “I’m An Animal Too” shudder out of your stereo speakers like a cold wind. The muscular “Contagious” offers tight-as-a-fist rhythms and snotty. punkish vocals while “I Want You Around” is a twangy country-rocker with weepy pedal steel (and better than anything Music Row will release this year). “Out of Place” is a reckless basher with explosive drumbeats, throbbing bass lines, altered melodic vox, and livewire guitar. Every song here crackles with arcane energy and reverence for the holy trinity of Chuck, Bo, and Elvis as brothers Price and Mark Harrison and fellow travelers Tony Frost and George Lilly revel in a Bacchanalian feast of music-making. Gleefully imposing electro-shock rock ‘n’ roll therapy for your soul, X marks the spot! Grade: A+   BUY DIRECT!

Joe Strummer – Assembly (Dark Horse Records)
Resurrected by his son Dhani, the first new release by George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records is this Joe Strummer collection, Assembly. Strummer performed and recorded with a number of bands after the Clash’s break-up, including the Mescaleros and the Pogues, and also put hours of solo performances down on tape. Assembly could have easily been twice the length and not scratched the depth of the man’s enormous talents, but the album’s 16 tracks cover a lot of ground nonetheless, from familiar tunes like the Mescaleros’ “Coma Girl” and “X-Ray Style” to previously-unreleased live versions of “Junco Partner (Acoustic),” “I Fought the Law” and “Rudie Can’t Fail.” To be entirely honest, however, I prefer the 2018 release Joe Strummer 001, which was overseen by Strummer’s widow and offers two discs crammed with material, 32 songs in total, including a dozen previously-unreleased tracks, music from the 101ers, the Mescaleros, Latino Rockabilly War, and the Pogues, as well as movie soundtrack work and solo recordings. There’s a bit of overlap between Assembly and Joe Strummer 001, so while I’d recommend the double-disc set, Assembly may be worth buying if only for the three unreleased songs (depending on your level of rabid Strummer fandom). Grade: B+   BUY!  

The Thieves – Catfish Karma: The Lost Demos 1987-88 (Rambler Records)
Nashville boasted of a number of great bands during the 1980s but none, perhaps, were as overlooked and undervalued as the Thieves. Comprised of singer/songwriter Gwil Owen, guitarist Bart Weilburg, bassist Kelley Looney, and drummer Jeff Finlin, the Thieves had one foot in rock ‘n’ roll and the other in the Music City’s honky-tonk sound years before such blending of genres was called “Americana.” The band’s 1989 semi-indie release, the Marshall Crenshaw-produced Seduced By Money, is a gem waiting to be rediscovered by the hipster crowd; Catfish Karma is a compilation released by Owen and consisting of the band’s early demo recordings. Featuring only four tracks that made their way onto Seduced By Money, the new disc stands well on its own. Holdovers like the Dylan-esque “From A Motel 6” or the rockabilly-tinged “Pick A Number” are rawer and, if memory serves, edgier than the album versions, but unreleased tracks like the melodic “The Night Gives Me Strength,” which veers onto power-pop turf, or the funky, strutting “Rabbit Town,” with shimmering guitar, display the band’s enormous talents and creative vision. My fave? “The Hard Way,” a fierce slab o’ rust-belt rawk that sounds like Nashville’s version of the Iron City Houserockers. Grade: A   BUY DIRECT!

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Bonus Video!

Previously on That Devil Music.com:

Short Rounds, December 2020: Dave Alvin, Blue Öyster Cult, Shemekia Copeland, Coyote Motel, The Fleshtones, Little Richard, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Midnight Oil, The Pretty Things, Walter Trout, and Brown Acid: The Eleventh Trip

Short Rounds, October 2020: Elvin Bishop & Charlie Musselwhite, The Hangfires, Kursaal Flyers, Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, Toots & the Maytals, and Crawling Up A Hill

Short Rounds, May 2020: The Burrito Brothers, Richie Owens & the Farm Bureau, Webb Wilder, Lucinda Williams, and X

Short Rounds, April 2020: Datura4, Dream Syndicate, Drivin’ N’ Cryin, Bryan Ferry, Game Theory, and Supersuckers

Archive Review: Son House's The Very Best of Son House (2006)

Son House is a name known by even the most casual of blues fans, but few have heard his amazing performances in their original context or understand his place in the history of the blues. Eddie House Jr. was brought up in the church, preaching at plantation churches at the age of fifteen. He didn’t even pick up a guitar until the age of twenty-five, but after discovering the temptations of the juke joint, his die was cast as a bluesman. House played alongside the legendary Charley Patton for years, and no less of legends than Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson were led to the blues by House.

The Very Best of Son House opens with three early (and rare) House recordings from 1930, “My Black Mama,” “Walking Blues,” and “Dry Spell Blues.” Technologically cleaned up as much as possible from the original cheap Paramount 78s, these raw, scratchy performances are valuable not only as historical artifacts but also as signposts for the intense, incredible music that would follow. House’s recording sessions in the early ‘40s with the Smithsonian’s Alan Lomax are better-suited to modern ears, House delivering scorching readings of well-worn songs like “Levee Camp Blues,” “Depot Blues,” and the haunting “Walking Blues (Death Letter).”

A handful of sides from ‘60s round out The Very Best of Son House, including the always-thrilling gospel rave-up “John the Revelator.” At once one of the most respected and yet overlooked of the original Delta bluesmen, Son House wrote the blueprint that a bunch of white boys from England would later use to create blues-rock some four decades later. If you haven’t listened to Son House, you haven’t heard the blues. (Shout! Factory Records, released November 1, 2006)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2006

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Son House’s The Very Best of Son House

Archive Review: Wobbler's Hinterland (2005)

I’ve often joked with friends that there are only ten or twelve prog-rock musicians in the United States and Europe but, between them all, they comprise two dozen or so bands. Considering the cross-pollination between artists and the limited commercial possibilities available in the progressive rock world, it’s no surprise that musicians such as Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Roine Stolt, and such maximize their potential by getting involved in as many musical projects as possible.

Wobbler’s Hinterland

The truth is, prog-rock and its kissing cousin, prog-metal, may entail more roster-swapping and creative collaboration than does mainstream rock music, but this is mostly because the talents of the artists involved, their love of the music and a seemingly endless well of creativity results in a lot of great music being made. As the prog-rock genre becomes more popular with younger audiences both here and abroad (hell, I don’t think that it ever fall into disfavor in Japan), a new generation of young bands has begun to appear. Talented musicians weaned on classic ‘70s-era prog-rock as well as second-wave bands like Spock’s Beard and the Flower Kings, the third wave of prog has been launched with welcome new faces like Circus Maximus and Norway’s Wobbler.

Introduced to an appreciative audience at the 2005 NEARfest art-and-prog-rock festival in Pennsylvania, Wobbler follows up its dynamic summer performance with Hinterland, the band’s anticipated debut album. The results of Wobbler’s first effort is nothing short of stunning, Hinterland a magnificent tour-de-force combining elements of Scandinavian folk and old-school progressive rock with classical composition and instrumental virtuosity. Keyboardist Lars Froislie engaged the services of a number of vintage instruments like a Hammond C3 organ, Mini-Moog, Rhodes electric piano, and Mellotron to recreate the sound and fury of classicist proggers such as Yes and King Crimson while the rest of the band has woven a subtle tapestry of sound with symphonic overtones and rock roots. Guitarist Morten Eriksen’s fretwork reminds one of Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre while frontman Tony Johannessen’s vocals are warm but capable of reaching subtle heights.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

The emphasis on Hinterland is on the music, however, and Wobbler has excelled at the construction of a dense, multi-layered and multi-faceted collection of songs that are long on Froislie’s considerable keyboard wizardry and short on pretension. The band has forged atmospheric compositions of amazing ambition and depth, combining disparate musical elements to create a new and exciting strain of progressive rock. Wobbler has shot for the stars and struck a bullseye, Hinterland an incredible debut, certain to bring the band acclaim as typically reticent prog-rock lifers sit up and take notice. We look forward to hearing more from this talented and innovative group of musicians. (The Laser’s Edge, released September 5th, 2005)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005

Buy the CD on Amazon.com: Wobber’s Hinterland

CD Review: Jason Ringenberg's Rhinestoned (2021)

Jason & the Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg is a pioneering Americana legend who has also enjoyed a critically-acclaimed and modestly-successful solo career that kicked off with 2000’s A Pocketful of Soul, which was followed by 2002’s All Over Creation. In between these efforts, Ringenberg pursued a third distinct career as “Farmer Jason,” recording goofy yet deceptively sly albums for kid (and their parents). He took some time off after 2004’s Empire Builders, reunited with the Scorchers for 2010’s landmark Halcyon Times album, and then returned to his family and life in Tennessee.   

Jason Ringenberg’s Rhinestoned

The offer of an “artist in residency” program at Sequoia National Park in California proved to be too alluring to pass by, however, and with newfound clarity and purpose (and a bunch of new songs), Ringenberg came roaring back with 2019’s incredible Stand Tall album. The Roots of Stand Tall appeared last year, the album a sort of “making of” trip and, when 2020 rolled around, Ringenberg had songs left over that didn’t quite fit onto Stand Tall. In a press release for his new album, Jason states “these weren’t enough to make another record, nor did I have the fire to embark on another recording project.” When the Covid lockdown started, though, Jason says that “songs began to pour out. I felt increasingly excited and driven to record again. I put a guitar and recorder by my bed. I was ready to jump on any idea like a Revolutionary War Minuteman waiting to be called by Paul Revere.”

The result is Ringenberg’s finest solo album to date, Rhinestoned. The man himself says “the songs rolled out rather heavy. I reckon that was to be expected, with a world grappling with a pandemic and the United States embroiled in racial strife.” A historian in his own lyrical manner, Jason easily ties together events from yesteryear with contemporary themes to create a strong song cycle that has one foot in the past and an eye towards the future. Rhinestoned kicks off with the Dylanesque “Before Love and War,” a poetic rocker that shines with producer/guitarist George Bradfute’s shimmering fretwork, Fats Kaplin’s sweeping steel guitar, and emotionally-charged vocals. Ringenberg’s “The Freedom Rides Weren’t Free” is another up-tempo rocker with brilliant, timely lyrics that reflect the “Black Lives Matter” protests while speaking of the sacrifices of the Freedom Riders, who fought for civil rights in the early ‘60s. Jason delivers a powerful vocal performance for a song into which he invests a lot of heart and soul.

Nashville Without Rhinestones

Ringenberg has lived in the Nashville area for better than 40 years, and dabbled in the country music field, so he knows what he speaks of in “Nashville Without Rhinestones,” a folk-styled song with lyrics spoken, rather than sung against a rolling instrumental backdrop. Jason bemoans the loss of the “old” Nashville not in the manner of some aging crank, but rather as a traditionalist who isn’t so much criticizing the city’s progress as much as mourning what it’s leaving behind. “Out on the horizon, I see a sinking ship,” he sings, “filled with hillbilly ghosts on their final trip,” nodding to the Music City’s rich cultural heritage by playing “an old LP” from 1963, 1953, 1943, etc., throughout the lengthy history of country & western music. Jason pays further tribute to the “Old Nashville” with a charming cover of the Carter Family’s country classic “The Storms Are On the Ocean.” A duet with the incredibly-talented Kristi Rose, their two voices recreate pure magic in the grooves.  
 
Only Ringenberg could take an antiquated hymn like “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and turn it into a rock song, but with a little vocal assistance from two of his daughters (Addie and Camille), and soaring Bradfute guitarplay, the song manages to be both reverent and joyfully rowdy. Ringenberg’s “I Rode with Crazy Horse” is one of the album’s most interesting songs, with its germination in a dream. Says Jason, “I woke up and immediately hummed the words and melody into my phone recorder. I am enormously proud of that song.” A rollicking story-song, Ringenberg states that its “story is loosely based on an old Lakota/Oglala legend that one of Crazy Horse’s cousins rode and fought beside him through every battle, even to his death at Fort Robinson.” Riding a timeworn C&W beat like a galloping horse, the story unfolds into a fascinating tale accompanied by Bradfute’s ringing guitars and a locomotive rhythms courtesy of drummer Steve Ebe’s relentless percussion.  

Stoned On Rhinestones

The semi-autobiographical “My Highway Songs” is the perfect antidote to today’s insipid “pop country” music with Ringenberg’s high-lonesome vocals sitting atop a twangy yet lush instrumental soundtrack, the self-reflective lyrics of an aging rocker wondering if “there’s a place in the world for my highway songs?” The music is simply gorgeous, with Kaplin’s weeping pedal steel standing out, and the song itself is worthy of a tradition built by Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Speaking of which, Jason’s cover of ol’ Hank’s “You Win Again” is a beautiful contemporary take on the honky-tonk gem, Ringenberg imbuing the song with plenty of pathos and heartache while the band choogles on behind him. A cover of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils’ song “Time Warp” (from 1975’s The Car Over the Lake album) is a swinging nod to country music’s influence on 1970s-era Southern rock.

With “Stoned On Rhinestones,” Ringenberg takes a sly look at the allure of country music stardom, his humorous lyrics bouncing off a rockin’ hillbilly musical backdrop to cleverly (and honestly) describe both the ups and the downs of a life on stage. The grand romantic ambitions of “Keep That Promise” could easily have been a Jason & Scorchers tune, with guitarist Warner Hodges shooting off sparks while Jason sings of star-crossed lovers. As it is, Bradfute and company do a fine job raising the roof, providing stinging fretwork and a dense rhythmic canvas for Jason to paint on. Rhinestoned closes with “Window Town,” another poetic lyrical turn that obliquely speaks of the difficulty of personal relationships in the modern world. The soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful, masterfully blending country and rock with filigree guitar and pedal steel (and Kristi Rose’s harmony vocals) playing off a solid rhythmic foundation.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Jason says it better than I ever could, stating that “taken all together, this is a record populated by old souls and ghosts – both people and places. The main song cycle of Rhinestoned examines my relationship with a changing Nashville and its role in country music.” Although many of the album’s songs look backwards, they’re also contemplative of the future in a time of doubt and apprehension. Recorded during the Covid era with the attendant social distancing, and ably assisted by guitarist and producer George Bradfute, in whose Tone Chaparral studio the album was recorded, Ringenberg and his collaborators nevertheless managed to crank out a timeless and enduring collection of spirited country-rock music that is both uplifting and entertaining…and who could ask for better in these trying days and times? (Courageous Chicken Records, released March 5th, 2021)

Jason Ringenberg 2021 photo above by Scott Willis

Buy the CD direct from the artist: Jason Ringenberg’s Rhinestoned

Classic Rock Review: Badfinger's No Dice (1970)

Widely-considered as the “Godfathers of Power-Pop,” Badfinger’s storied career dated back to the early 1960s. Formed in 1961, the band ran through names like the Black Velvets and the Wild Ones before settling on the Iveys. A typical British R&B outfit, the Iveys played Top 40 chart hits, Motown, psychedelic-rock, blues, and soul while touring with better-known outfits like the Who, the Yardbirds, and the Spencer Davis Group. They would come to the attention of the Beatles and, signed to that band’s Apple Records label, would change their name and start the long slog of moving out of the long shadow of their benefactors.

No Dice was the second album recorded under the Badfinger band name and features the “classic” line-up of guitarists Pete Ham and Joey Molland, bassist Tom Evans, and drummer Mike Gibbins, all of whom share vocals at one time or another. It’s an odd album, and not what fans might expect, in spite of the power-pop blueprint “No Matter What,” an engaging slice of guitar-driven chart candy that would become the band’s second Top 10 U.K. and U.S. single. Although a lot of the album’s exercises in rock ‘n’ roll reflect the uncertainty of the changing decades (as well as upheaval in the Beatles camp and Apple Records), there are a number of gems hidden in these grooves.

The Ham/Evans co-write “Without You” would become a big hit for Harry Nilsson a year after Badfinger’s hauntingly beautiful and sublime version. The rollicking, country-tinged “Better Days” offers up some stellar fretwork and harmony vocals while the rockin’ “Love Me Do” one-ups the Beatles with a stomping ‘50s throwback soundtrack. Evans’ “Believe Me” is a Paul McCartney solo track by any standard with plaintive, yearning vocals and lush instrumental accompaniment and “We’re For the Dark” closes No Dice with an elegant folk-pop tune boasting of elegant guitarplay and Ham’s warm vocals. Oddly enough, only “No Matter What” was released as a single off the album, although there are easily a couple of other worthy candidates here.     

Badfinger peaked commercially with the band’s 1971 album Straight Up, which would ride the Top 10 U.S. hits “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue” to a #31 position on the Billboard albums chart. Financial mismanagement, personnel changes, the demise of Apple Records, numerous lawsuits, and other issues plagued the band until its break-up in 1975 following the death of Pete Ham by suicide. Broker than broke, Badfinger members Molland and Evans re-formed the band in the late ‘70s and released albums in 1979 (Airwaves) and 1981 (Say No More) before breaking up again, each man touring with their own version of Badfinger in the early ‘80s. Despondent over an argument concerning royalties, Evans took his own life in 1983. Joey Molland continued to lead Badfinger, in one form or another, into the 2000s while also releasing several solo albums. (Apple Records, 1970)

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Classic Rock Review: Black Sabbath's Paranoid (1970)

If Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album, released in February 1970, was a shot across the bow of music biz politesse, then their sophomore effort, Paranoid, tore down the gates and announced that the freebooters were here to rampage and plunder. Released a mere seven months after their debut, the album represented a large creative leap forward for the foursome of Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums). The touchstone for several subsequent sub-genres of heavy metal – as well as a foundational album for the metal genre altogether – there’s literally not a bad song to be found on Paranoid.

Kicking off with the anti-war dirge “War Pigs,” Iommi introduces his heavy, riff-based guitar technique to a legion of stoners while Ozzy’s sepulchre vocals perfectly match the Sturm und Drang of Butler’s lyrics. Producer Roger Bain added some sound effects to the mix while Ward’s explosive drumbeats drive the song’s lyrical narrative. The result ranks among the top two or three most influential metal songs ever recorded. The breakneck title song – literally thrown together in the studio at the last minute to pad out the album – shows the band channeling arcane forces with a thrashy descent into madness that would make “Paranoid” perhaps the most influential heavy metal track of all time (or only second, perhaps, to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water”). Sabbath wasn’t content with merely resting on the success of the first couple of ball-breakers on Paranoid, nosirree…they go on to dredge up the most devastating sonic sludge that they could conceive of in the proto-metal daze of the dawn of the new decade.

The hallucinogenic psychedelic mindfuck of “Planet Caravan” is directly responsible for the creation of bands like Saint Vitus, Kyuss, the Obsessed, and Electric Wizard while the plodding, metal-clad golem “Iron Man” has taken on legs of its own beyond Paranoid. Songs like “Electric Funeral” and “Hand of Doom” display a heretofore unknown, uranium-strength level of heaviness and radioactivity while the album-closing “Fairies Wear Boots” (with its intricate musical intro often listed separately as “Jack the Stripper”) cranked the amps to absurd levels, Ozzy’s epochal vocals matched by jackhammer rhythms and Iommi’s six-string pyrotechnics. A new wind was blowing in from Merry Olde England, driving Paranoid to #1 in the U.K. and #12 on the U.S. albums chart, eventually selling more than four million flapjacks on its way to making Sabbath international rock stars. (Warner Brothers Records, 1970)

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